Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Just Have to Remember to Embrace the Failure and Rely on the Imagination

Very Good Lives by J. K. Rowling

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*Note: This review was completed in 2016 before the author’s hateful views towards our trans siblings began to be more widely known. My reading experience was what it was and this reviews will remain up, but it should be noted that I find her TERF values abhorrent, and her doubling down in Summer 2020 has made the decision to walk away from her as a creative force the only acceptable choice for me. I will no longer be supporting her through further purchases of new […]

J.K. Rowling is a goddess

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If you’ve never heard of Robert Galbraith before, it’s for a good reason: Galbraith is a pseudonym assumed by J.K. Rowling. I haven’t researched the reason for the pen name, but given the content of this book (and the first one in the series, the excellent The Cuckoo’s Calling), which is much more mature and graphic, it’s not hard to imagine that she’d like to keep this image separate from her Harry Potter books. So, getting into it: Cormoran Strike is a private investigator in London. […]

One of my favorite duos in literature

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Career of Evil (2015) is Galbraith/J.K. Rowling’s third novel following private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant-cum-partner, Robin Ellacott. I discovered this series through my book club when we read The Cuckoo’s Calling. I followed it up by reading The Silkworm on my own. Each book has a self-contained, engaging, and complex murder mystery. The connection between all three books is the relationship between Cormoran and Robin. Robin starts working for Cormoran in the first book, she becomes more indispensable to him in the second, and they […]

“… cheer the fuck up and eat your burger.”

The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike #2) by Robert Galbraith, Robert Glenister (narrator)

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*Note: This review was completed in 2016 before the author’s views towards our trans siblings began to be widely known.  My reading experience was what it was and these reviews will remain up, but it should be noted that I find her TERF values abhorrent, which have only become more clear over time, and her doubling down in Summer 2020 has made the decision to walk away from her as a creative force the only acceptable choice for me. I will no longer be supporting […]

Better and better

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3.5 stars. A significant step up in quality from The Cuckoo’s Calling which was good, but lost a little steam at the end. The silkworm just kept building and building into a solidly great reveal. I’ve heard excellent things about the third book in the series, so I’m pretty excited to tackle it in 2016. But back to The Silkworm… Rowling takes on the publishing industry in her second Cormoran Strike novel so not only is it a fun mystery, it’s also slightly satirical. Novelist […]

Rowling and mysteries are a perfect fit

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3.5 stars. This time of year usually has me craving mysteries and I’d been meaning to get to J.K. Rowling’s pseudonymous series. The Cormoran Strike series written under the name of Robert Galbraith centers on ex-military policeman Strike and his new assistant/secretary, Robin. They’re called on to investigate the mysterious death of ultra famous supermodel, Lula Landry. Her death was officially ruled a suicide by the police months ago, but many of her friends and family just can’t believe she would choose to end her […]



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